One tip that I picked up here is while you are starting out and saving money for your investments, start driving / visiting areas you would like to invest in so you get a feel for prices, rents , house conditions etc, and visit and look at lots of homes and open houses so your eye get used to looking at repairs / upgrades that are normal in a particular market.

A lot of the custom work, detail work, tech upgrades didnt cost me any more than the physical supply cost and the daily contractor labor rate.I'll post my costs, but it should only be used as an approximate baseline, some of the things would cost a couple $K more normally. $928 - Wood Laminate Flooring$6000 - Roofing$6521.68 - Kitchen/Bath$495.95 - Landscaping Labor$4250~ - Electrical$2000~ - Plumbing$655 - Water Heater$1973 - Windows$900 - Tile Flooring and Shower Wall Tiles

Normally, I only come out of pocket 5 to 10k per deal. 2) I buy with hard money and then refi into a commercial loan so I'm able to get into the homes with a lot less money than a traditional purchase.But still.

After spending money fixing up a property, I obviously want to make sure the tenants occupying it are not damaging or tearing anything up....whether accidentally or deliberately......or worse still, using my property as a front for some shady illegal activity    (take your pick on that one....the illegal activity that is).I also want to make sure I am on top of the stuff that will break down due to normal wear and tear and stuff that needs regular maintenance.I also want to make sure the tenants are doing their part in up keeping the property as necessary....mowing lawns, shoveling snow from sidewalks and generally maintaining a reasonably clean interior and exterior for their own good and mine.If and when the tenants do tear something up, or something breaks down due to no fault of their own, unless it adversely affects their daily routine, I would think that they most likely would not report it.

Use them for normal expenses and don't carry balances.

Insurance just needs to be updated from a normal dwelling policy to an investment policy.

Wholesaling is normally the beginning then a person goes into another aspect like buy and hold. 

My painter quoted me higher then normal because there is wallpaper in the entire house that I want removed.

I show them a "flip calculator" sheet and using the equations (normally go off 65%-expenses) this is what an investor would offer.

The title company normally holds until closing .